Ahead of New Star Wars Film — A Look Back At ‘Star Wars’ The Missile Defense System

Peter Trumbore during an appearance on Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson in August

Lately on Thursdays, Detroit Today has been talking about issues that used to dominate news headlines but have sort of fizzled out over the years. The upcoming release of the latest Star Wars film inspired a discussion about the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

SDI, commonly referred to us “Star Wars,” was championed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. At the tail end of the Cold War, the United States was seeking a defensive advantage in the event of a Soviet missile attack.

According to Trumbore, SDI was proposed at a time when Cold War tensions had heightened between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

“(President Reagan) believed that if it was possible to protect the United States from a Soviet first strike, then that would be better for everyone,” he says.

Trumbore calls the proposed SDI plan ”technologically fanciful.”

“What Reagan envisioned were orbital laser platforms shooting down missiles as they were flying through space,” he says.

“Not only was the technology beyond anything that we would have been capable of in the 1980s, or even are capable of now, but it was understood by a lot of folks, including the Soviets, that a functional missile defense system increasing security would fundamentally de-stabilize the nuclear balance between the two countries.”

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